The Alley Theatre‘s The Seagull, one of Anton Chekhov’s most challenging plays, beautifully succeeds in so many areas but fails in one key role, thereby making the production uneven and severely flawed.

If there is something that does not work in a stage production, there is only one person to blame—the director.

Director Gregory Boyd has so seriously miscast the key role of Nina that I was embarrassed for the young actress who tried her damnedest to make the role work.

Why didn’t Mr. Boyd work with her on a line by line basis to help her find the many subtleties and interesting shadings of Nina?

What we are left with is a role that has no depth or substance—sort of a one-note Nina, when what we need to experience is a girl spiraling out of control in a fit of shame and madness, not knowing where to go or whom to love, a broken human being that has nowhere else to run and no answers or solutions at her disposal.

I can think of a dozen local actresses who could have absolutely nailed the role of Nina, instead of Erica Lutz, who was hired by Mr. Boyd from a New York audition.

Ms. Lutz, where were the pregnant pauses, why were so many lines thrown away, why did you result in wringing your hands far too often, where was the humanity, the pain, the sorrow, the dying seagull in Nina?

Nina is truly one of Chekhov’s most difficult, complex, and multifaceted roles.

Ms. Lutz perhaps is too young to have experienced the slings and arrows of Nina’s misfortunes, all the more reason that Mr. Boyd should have cast an older and more capable actor who plays young and has experienced
what is necessary to bring Nina to complete fruition.

Tragically, what we end up with is a pivotal character who is not believable, thereby making the tragic ending Nina causes in The Seagull seem almost laughable, if not totally predictable and, ultimately, meaningless.

Ms. Lutz successfully shouted most of her lines at the top of her range, making me wince often during her dangerous delivery.

It was as if she were playing to a 2000-seat house, instead of the intimate Neuhaus Stage, where no one need shout to finesse the drama.

I have often thought that Chekhov’s powerful dramas are the basis for the modern day soap opera—there is so much angst, melodrama, and acting out, we might as well be witnessing an episode of Dallas or Falconcrest.

Just think what different plays we would have if only Chekhov’s depressed characters had had access to the many medications now available to us for bipolar disorders and the many diseases of anxiety and depression.

Not to mention the modern day rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous which could have helped more than a few of Chekhov’s characters who seem bent on destroying their own lives and the lives around them by acting out with their addictions.

I hope Mr. Boyd experienced Classical Theatre Company‘s recent production of Uncle Vanya, a perfectly conceived production of a brilliant Chekhov play.

Perhaps Mr. Boyd could have learned a few lessons from that production.

Like how to find the humor in a Chekhov play and run with it.

Boyd’s vision of the Sorin family is far too dark and menacing to be embraced wholeheartedly.

(If you are going to go this route, Mr. Boyd, then perhaps you should have given us two intermissions instead of one so that we could more readily absorb the darkness by giving us a chance to pour another vodka stinger down our throats. Or did you fear that one more intermission might provoke a massive walkout? As it was, about a quarter of the audience jumped ship at intermission.)

Mr. Boyd obviously totally forgot that darkness is only recognizable as darkness by placing it next to moments of light.

There are simply not enough attempts to find the humor in Chekhov’s melodramatic fare.

James Belcher does his best to tell his over-the-top stories as Shamreyev and Josie De Guzman hilariously and dramatically overacts as Arkadina when she needs to get what she wants, but we absolutely need more humor here to make the darkness, the decadence, and the utter hopelessness of The Seagull touch us like a sword thrust through our heart and soul.

There is almost a lack of humanity in these characters.

By directing Chekhov’s cast of characters as stock characters (i.e., the writer, the doctor, the dying uncle, the lovestruck actress, the successful but very mediocre actress, the idealistic young writer, the melancholic alcoholic, etc.), Mr. Boyd has further removed us from the heart and the reality of these characters’ souls by relying on the obvious in Chekhov’s stable of stars.

There has been little or no attempt to make these characters work as modern day messes.

Classical Theatre Company’s Uncle Vanya found the heart of Chekhov’s stock characters, thereby making them as fresh, futile, and full of life they were the day Chekhov penned them into existence.

By those standards, The Alley Theatre’s production of The Seagull flies unevenly and crash lands into an eternity of poor attempts to make Chekhov successfully soar into our collective consciousness.

Josie De Guzman as Arkadina; James Black as Trigorin (Photo by Jann Whaley)

Josie De Guzman‘s Arkadina, a very B actress, displays her very fine A acting to give us many memorable moments in The Seagull.

Ms. De Guzman’s attempt to win back her lover Trigorin is one of the brightest and funniest moments of The Seagull and she makes great acting look easy as she sparkles and shines, complete with crocodile tears running down her expressive face.

Ms. De Guzman knows how to play a scene extremely well and does just that in spades in a scene where she shames the hell out of her son, Konstantin.

Jeffrey Bean gives a great performance as Sorin, her brother, as he grows closer and closer to death, not having achieved many of his dreams.
James Black shines brightly as Trigorin, a successful writer stuck in a banal existence.

I wished more color from Karl Glusman, who inhabits Konstantin with plenty of angst.
In his final scene, why was there not more madness, mayhem, and absolute misery before his eminent demise?

Again, I do not blame the actor as much here as Gregory Boyd, who simply did not strongly, soundly, and successfully build Konstantin’s and Nina’s final scene.

Rachael Tice as Masha; Todd Waite as Dorn (Photo by Jann Whaley)

Rachael Tice practically steals the play as the melancholic Masha, who is “in mourning for my life.”

I would rather have seen Ms. Tice play Nina and Ms. Lutz play Masha.

Ms. Tice makes all of the right choices and goes bigger-than-life most of the time with amazing results.

Ironically, James Belcher gets a little too big for the stable master and estate manager, Shamreyev. A poor and lowly employee on the Sorin estate would simply not be as big and literate as Belcher makes him, again a directing choice.

Chris Hutchison is excellent as Medvedenko, always a delight to experience.

Todd Waite is memorable as Dorn, a doctor that always resorts to singing when things get rough.

Scenic design by Kevin Rigdon is sparse and simple, running a natural pine plank floor as a thrust, thereby shifting the entire north section of the audience into the west and east sections.

The many birch tress that line the upstage wall perfectly frame the fate of the sorry Sorins.

Lighting design by Pat Collins is very effective, successfully using warm ambers with blue accents and gobos that create mesmerizing shadowy effects on the natural pine stage.

Costume design by Alejo Vietti is supurb.

Music composition and sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen is remarkable.

I see more theatre in this town than anyone else and I am here to tell you that this production of The Seagull is not worthy of Houston’s only resident professional Equity theatre.

Last year, it was announced that Gregory Boyd’s contract has been extended for another five years as artistic director of the Alley Theatre.

Is the Alley Board of Directors asleep or are they blind or merely stupid or all of these?

Alright.

Boyd can remain as Artistic Director but just don’t allow him to direct anything else.

Remember the overworked Wonderland flop and the godawful Peter Pan?

Isn’t it time that Houston truly deserves the best of the best when it comes to all aspects of theatre?

I am proud to call Houston my home and I am here to tell you that I have seen better direction than Boyd’s here in The Seagull at almost every other theatre in Houston, professional or community.

You are on your own if you choose to suffer through The Seagull on the Neuhaus Stage at the Alley Theatre through March 4.